Opera updated following unexplained Outlook.com lockout

Update Opera Software is working on a fix to ensure Microsoft’s Hotmail successor Outlook.com works in its browser.

Opera has pumped out Update 12.01 to make Outlook.com work with its browser but warned fans might continue to encounter problems with attachments. It has also patched a critical vulnerability in desktop versions of its browser software in the update.

The browser company said here: “There may still be some issues with attachments for the time being, but we are working on getting that taken care of as soon as possible too.”

The idea of Outlook.com is you can open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint attachments in a browser window through the hosted version of Office, Office Web Apps.

Microsoft launched Outlook.com on Tuesday and immediately Opera users found themselves unable to use the service.

Opera user S.Harder Tweeted on Tuesday: “A good start for #outlook.com? can't even open the first welcome mail in #opera. boo!" Roy Triesscheijn added: “I love the look of #outlook.com and the hype. Very rare for a MS product. But Opera + http://Outlook.com is broken #sad.”

Microsoft was unable to explain why Outlook.com was broken in Opera and all it could offer was a corporate apology. A spokesperson told The Reg: “We have nothing to share at this time regarding Outlook.com on the Opera Browser. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

Outlook.com features a revamped UI owing more than a passing nod to the Windows Phone and Windows 8 Metro look, integration with social networks, and integration with the Office Web Apps.

Microsoft claimed more than one million people had signed up to Outlook.com in just six hours. Bona fide numbers are questionable, though, because Microsoft has been lax in holding back certain account names leaving the way open for people to rush in and claim classics such as steveballmer@outlook.com, no-reply@outlook.com and post.master@outlook.com.

Opera has also patched a critical vulnerability in desktop versions of its browser software, fixing a memory corruption bug involving the handling of certain URL constructs that might easily lead to malware injection on unpatched machines.

Opera 12.01 addresses two important vulnerabilities that open the door to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks because of problems in handling certain DOM elements and HTML characters. The cross-platform update also tackles a high-severity bug involving file downloads.

Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris users of Opera are all encouraged to patch their systems. The update also includes some performance and stability improvements and tweaks, as explained in the release notes for Windows and Mac versions of Opera 12.01.

Mobile versions of Opera's browser software are apparently not affected by any of the bugs. ®